It’s a modest Irvine tract house, ensconced in a modest amount of greenery. Nona Demetre considers her water use modest as well – but her monthly bill shot up 34 percent over the course of a single year nonetheless.
“As a retiree, I have been very conscious about conserving water in order to keep my bill low,” Dem

Within the span of only 11 years, the hole at the bottom of California’s state and local pension funds increased a staggering 3,046 percent.
The monstrous growth of the gap between what public agencies have promised workers upon retirement and what they actually have – from $6.3 billion in 2003 to $198.2 billion in 201

Public agencies have three decades to pay down unfunded pension promises – but some will not wait that long. Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Irvine and Villa Park are among those paying more than the California Public Employees’ Retirement System requires. This will allow them to pay off unfunded liabilities ear

Orange County cities have seen required annual payments to CalPERS spike some 16 percent since 2013. And those bills will keep climbing until 2020 or so, and stay there.
But that’s not causing the pain one might expect – at least, not yet. City tax revenues are climbing nearly as quickly as pension costs – and well exce

An Orange County Superior Court judge wrongly pulled the District Attorney’s Office from a mass murder case because of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies, the state Attorney General’s Office declared in an appellate brief filed Tuesday.
The state’s argument before the 4th District Court of Appeal said Superior Court

Legal experts are questioning the validity of a committee created by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to review his office’s controversial use of jailhouse informants.
At issue, some say, is the committee’s independence.
Two of the five members will be paid by the District Attorney’s Office and a

Last time around, Chuck Reed seized the third rail of California politics – launching the Hugest! Pension! Battle! Ever! – and suffered the inevitable burn.
This time around, he’s more circumspect, but perhaps no less menacing to the status quo.
Reed, a low-key Democrat and former mayor of San Jose, has

A Fullerton defense lawyer said Friday that dozens of DUI and other traffic cases are being reopened unfairly in the wake of an ongoing investigation into record fixing at the county courthouse.
Attorney Ray Dinari appeared in Westminster court to represent defendants whose long-settled traffic cases are being overturned because of the a

A single missing document in a DUI case, noticed three months ago by a courtroom clerk, set off a probe by the FBI and local prosecutors that has grown to more than 1,000 cases of suspected record fixing.Court counsel Jeff Wertheimer said Thursday the falsified records dated back to about 2010 and span the entire Orange County Superi

The thirst for knowledge is great – and the thirst for water at local colleges and universities is pretty significant as well.UC Irvine had the sixth-largest water bill in Orange County last year at $1.24 million, according to public documents. The university trailed only the Disneyland Resort, the Irvine Co., the city of Yorba

Disney’s Anaheim Resort is among the world’s most popular attractions (about 25.4 million visitors a year). Disney is the largest employer in Orange County (about 28,000 workers). And the company owns the biggest single slice of Anaheim property, ranked by assessed value ($4.7 billion).So it makes sense that Disney was th

A call came in to the child abuse hotline: The neighbors keep an autistic child caged in their home.The social worker who took that call relayed the information to the Anaheim Police Department. Officers went to a South Garrett Street house and found a large pet cage with a mattress and bedding inside, and they arrested the

Show us the real estate!That's what the Orange County Grand Jury wants county officials to do.The county's government buildings in the past have been valued at $1.7 billion, but officials lack a database that accurately reflects all the properties the county owns and leases, says an Orange County Grand Jury report issued

An Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputy’s refusal to testify in some court proceedings – previously a key part of his job – is sparking debate about the rights of police to remain silent.Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Tunstall recently notified prosecutors